South Carolina women's basketball: How Chloe Kitts got her groove back

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It’s been almost one year since Chloe Kitts joined the Gamecocks as a December enrollee. Her first season was a rollercoaster, but this season Kitts has emerged as a key player.

Kitts made her debut just five days after joining the team and tallied 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals against Charleston Southern. That turned out to be the high point of the season for Kitts.

Kitts scored just 19 points the rest of the season and averaged less than six minutes a game. She had just four points in 16 minutes total in the postseason. Because she wasn’t strong enough to hold up inside, South Carolina used Kitts mostly at guard, which was a new position for her.

Back in March, I talked to Kitts at the Final Four. I’d talked to her a few times in the preceding weeks, and although she was always polite and accommodating, she clearly didn’t enjoy it. We sat at her locker, and as I asked questions, Kitts sank further and further into her locker. She played with her hair as her voice got softer and softer until she was barely whispering.

When I finished, I thanked her and put my phone away, but in the cramped and crowded Dallas Stars locker room, I was stuck sitting by Kitts while I waited for space to move. I said to Kitts, “I know you hate this, don’t you?” She nodded slightly, and I apologized and thanked her again.

Kitts was frustrated and uncomfortable. By her own admission, she wasn’t prepared for the adjustment from high school to college, or how much harder the adjustment would be by enrolling in December. Basketball wasn’t much fun for her. 

In high school, Kitts could do it all. She could rebound and score inside with the bigs, and then run the court, shoot, and handle the ball with the guards. Watching her in all-star games, she always seemed to be in the right place, and she always seemed to make the right decision.

All of that was a distant memory by the time the Gamecocks were in Dallas.

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When the season ended, Kitts set two goals: she wanted to make the USA Basketball U19 team, and she wanted to be a starter for the 2023-24 season.

“I feel like (my game) developed, especially over the summer,” Kitts said. “I’ve been here all summer. Coach really developed me.”

Kitts made the U19 and helped lead the Americans to a gold medal (she also befriended Joyce Edwards, which surely counts as a fringe benefit). She started every game and averaged 10.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 1.6 in just 19.1 minutes. Kitts carried that momentum back to Columbia when the World Cup was over.

“She’s been steadily getting good at what she does,” Dawn Staley said. “I think this summer was a good summer for her. I thought the postseason was a good time for her to really understand what she wanted. She had her eye on USA Basketball U19 and she had her eye on starting. That was her focus. She worked on her shot, her confidence, her ability to make the right basketball decision. She put herself in a position to start for Joni Taylor’s U19 team and she brought that mentality back.”

On the first official day of practice, Staley analyzed Kitts’ growth. She noted that Kitts was “no longer the timid Chloe,” a description that would prove to be prophetic.

“She’s much further along because she came in last year. Much further,” Staley said. “She’s a much different player. She makes she makes good decisions. The offense flows when she’s in the game. She’s a worker. She’s a worker on both sides of the ball and she’s tough. She doesn’t back down from anybody. She’s no longer the timid Chloe.”

Kitts didn’t start in South Carolina’s exhibition against Rutgers. Veteran Sania Feagin got that assignment. But Staley wasn’t happy with that rotation and hinted that she might be a change. Sure enough, she tabbed Kitts as the starter at forward against Notre Dame in Paris.

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Kitts had seven points, two rebounds, and two assists, but only played 12 minutes against the Irish. It seemed like she was almost a placeholder in the lineup, just warming the seat for Feagin and Ashlyn Watkins, who played and contributed more. Staley encouraged Kitts not to settle.

“She said that to me a lot,” Kitts said. “She keeps fulfilling me with confidence. I knew my time was going to come eventually; I’ve just got to put the work in.”

Kitts’ time came quickly. In South Carolina’s stateside debut against Maryland, Kitts recorded her first career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Since then, Kitts has played better and better with each game. She had 11 points at North Carolina and then 14 points and nine rebounds against Duke. Kitts set a career-high with 14 rebounds against Morgan State and had 11 points and team-highs with seven rebounds and four assists against Utah. 

She’s taller and stronger, but Kitts looks like she’s in that high school groove again. She stuffs the box score and is comfortable playing physical basketball inside or stepping out to the perimeter with the guards. Kitts has been especially effective hitting mid-range jumpers.

“It makes me more confident,” she said. “Coach is like, you need to score.”

Kitts is averaging 10.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 0.8 blocks while attempting 4.2 free throws per game. She ranks second on the team in rebounding and free throws, and fourth in scoring, assists, and blocks.

And, as the fracas at Duke showed, Kitts isn’t timid. She’s not quite Mad Kiki (Mikiah Herbert Harrigan), the 2020 team’s emotional leader who previously wore Kitts’ number 21, but there’s a little Mad Chloe. 

It all comes from being confident again. Kitts is even comfortable talking to the media now.

“I know we’re good,” she said after the Maryland game. Everyone else knows it now too.

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